An often overlooked aspect of good UI design - Linux

This is a discussion on An often overlooked aspect of good UI design - Linux ; Interesting article on interfaces for desktop software:
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articl.../07/04/231356/
the-secret-to-designing-user-friendly-interfaces-for-desktop.htm>
(and here's a link for people whose newsreaders can't handle
standards-compliant wrapping):
>
A couple good quotes:
Interface designers may be obsessed with how pretty their creations
look, but it is ...

Interface designers may be obsessed with how pretty their creations
look, but it is how users feel at the end of a task that really
determines how usable a device is, according to human-computer
interaction (HCI) guru Donald Norman.

and

"What people miss about the iPod is that it's not about the device,"
he says. "Apple did a magnificent job of the entire system, from
licensing the music to the iTunes website. People don't know it's an
SAP website - they think SAP is horrible and complicated and don't
know how to use it. They don't know what they're using with iTunes.
Then Apple makes it easy to connect the iPod to your computer. It's
easy to get to iTunes. There's all sorts of trade marks and digital
rights management on top of that, and it's all invisible to the
user."

and

So it is not only an organisation's ability to design applications
or websites that matters, but also whether it can create the
supporting infrastructure to make the whole experience useful and
pleasant. This calls for breaking down departmental boundaries and
allowing multidisciplinary teams to consider the user experience
throughout the process, he says.

"The organisational structure of the company gets in the way. You
have the design team in one corner, the engineers and programmers in
another, marketing somewhere else. Then you might have
manufacturing, distribution and sales channels. All these people
dislike each other and fight with each other.

"The first step to getting a good product is nothing to do with the
product itself - it is to do with the organisational structure of
your company and the product team. Most companies recognise that is
where the problem is, but changing company culture is very
difficult."